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8.4 Conclusions
The aims of this section have been to demonstrate the feasibility of a declarative modelling
approach, and that its theoretical benefits are realisable in practice.
Quite possibly, some modelling environment other than Simile could have been used as a proofof-concept
demonstrator. However, there are several reasons for using Simile here: its modelling
language has considerably greater expressiveness than others; it is capable of generating efficient
simulations for complex models; and it was - unusually - developed specifically on an agenda of
an open, shareable modelling language.
Nevertheless, we should see Simile merely as an indicator of what is possible, not as an indicator
of the maximum that can be achieved. It has been developed on a budget that is small compared
to many models, let alone other modelling environments; it has weaknesses, for example in the
time required to generate the program code for large models; its use of XML as a modelrepresentation
formalism is still in its infancy; and the number of independent tools for handling
Simile models is still very limited. So this is in no way a "use Simile" promotion: rather, it is to
convince that even quite modest expenditure on developing a declarative modelling infrastructure
for ecosystem modelling will produce great dividends.
In the next Section, we will explore what these dividends could be in a representative ecosystem
research project.